272 Annual Report for *1906 of the Zoologist. 
Perhaps a few such pears will be found only on a single 
tree, the pest having only just found its way to the orchard. 
In that case it will be cheaply got rid of if every pear on that 
particular tree is sacrificed. In any case the owner is warned, 
and knows of the enemy he has to deal with. 
The life-history of the midge has been given in previous 
Reports, and need not be repeated, but the practical points are 
these : that during most of the month of May the grubs are in 
the young pears, and are destroyed by picking off and burning 
the infested fruit, while at the end of May or in June they 
leave the fruit and take refuge in the ground, spreading them- 
selves pretty widely through their power of jumping. There 
they remain till the flies come out in the following spring, so 
that it should not be impossible to take adequate measures to 
destroy them, especially if the soil is bare. In grass orchards 
the matter is, of course, more difficult, but some top dressing 
might be effectual. Good results have been recorded from 
a heavy dressing of kainit, though it is not very obvious why 
it should injure the insect unless by virtue of the common 
salt which it contains as an impurity. 
Apple Trees. 
Last spring a diseased appearance of apple branches where 
they had been pruned the previous autumn attracted attention 
in a Worcestershire orchard. The affected trees were chiefly 
“ Stirling Castles,” and the apparent disease was limited to the 
short stump between the outermost growing shoot and the 
place where the branch had been pruned. This appeared 
swollen and cankerous, and a slight, brown cavity at the tip 
seemed to indicate that some insect had been at work. 
It was impossible at the time to come to any definite 
conclusion as to the cause of the swellings, but it was hoped 
that observation of the trees after the next pruning might throw 
light upon the matter. Unfortunately rather too long a time 
was allowed to elapse before the newly pruned branches 
were examined, and nothing was found to account for the 
phenomenon satisfactorily. In the specimens sent there was 
again the slight cavity near the tip, covered by a broken and 
perforated cap, but the evidence of definite gnawing by some 
grub was not clear. Various creatures were found in the 
chamber, some of them being obviously casual visitors merely 
seeking a shelter. The creature most in evidence was the 
beetle-mite, Oribata lapidaria , numbers of which were found 
in the cavity and also at the bases of the shoots. This is a mite 
which is constantly accused of causing malformations on the 
branches of various trees, but the verdict of naturalists is in 
its favour, as it is said to do good rather than harm by feeding 
